Tea Bowl with a design of a fence and distant mountains; named ‘Yamaji’

Shino type, Mino ware

Information

Data

Artist

Shino type, Mino ware

Period

Momoyama period, 16th century

Materials and techniques

Stoneware with underglaze iron decoration

Size

H.10.3 MD.13.6×12.0 BD.5.7

Explanation

Shino tea bowls are made using a soft moxa-type clay and are often thick-walled and large in size. This piece was conscientiously made and features an uneven mouth rim fashioned in the "mountain ridge" style, and a wavy line incised with a pallet around the hip representing perhaps a mountain road. The body is painted in underglaze iron with simple but powerful designs of a cypress fence, distant mountains and pines, and is covered with a thick coat of white feldspathic glaze characteristic of Shino ware which has melted smoothly, giving the surface a soft texture.